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Monday, April 25, 2011

I'm Telling!!

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

When my brother and I would come home from school, we'd watch television. This is not uncommon by any stretch of the imagination. And, for a while, we'd often play along to I'm Telling, which we thought we should be on, since we were a brother-sister pair who were between 8 and 12 at the time (of course, we didn't realize it was taped years before, LoL). We'd also run around the living room, pretending to choose prizes. We were funny kids, I gotta say.

Brief history: Basically, this was The Newlywed Game for siblings. You tried to know more about your sibling than someone else knew about theirs. There were only 26 episodes made (between 1987 and 1988), so it wasn't very popular. It originally ran on NBC on Saturday mornings, but I caught it on The Family Channel, from 1994-1996 (it also ran on that channel 1989-1990).

The game: There were three sibling pairs competing - almost always brothers and sisters. In the first round, the brothers were taken to a soundproof room, and the sisters answered three questions about the brothers. The questions would be about likes and dislikes, abilities, favorites, experiences, etc. The brothers came back, answered the questions, and got 25 points if the sisters got the first question right, 50 for the second, and 75 for the third. Then, the sisters went to a soundproof booth and the boys answered three questions about them. The girls came back, answered, and if the responses matched, got 50 points for the first, 75 points for the second, and 150 for the third. If one team was so far in the lead that the other two couldn't possibly catch up, they ended it before revealing all of the answers. The losing teams got bikes or something like that. The winning brother-sister pair then won a $1,000 savings bond and got to play Pick-a-Prize. There were 20 prizes - 10 for boys and 10 for girls (yes, the game was pretty sexist). The boy secretly chose the 6 prizes he thought that his sister would want, and she secretly chose the 6 she thought that he'd want. Then, the sister would run through the arcade, picking prizes for herself - if they matched what the brother chose for her, she won them. Then, he did the same. If they had 10 or more matches (out of 12), they won everything. Here's an entire episode, where the winning team gets a perfect score.

Notable changes to the way the game is played: none, really. it wasn't around long enough, LoL.

Special contestants: There was Brothers' Day and Sisters' Day a few times, to accommodate siblings of the same sex. There were also games where kids from other NBC shows would play with their real-life siblings. Giovanni Ribisi, Shannen Doherty, Sean Astin, Paul Walker, Ami Foster (from Punky Brewster), Benji Gregory (from ALF), and Lindsay Price were all on that show, some before they were in anything else. And, as a fun note, Astin beat Doherty.

Favorite Rounds: I actually preferred to watch the second round. The prizes round was kinda boring, since we didn't know the contestants well enough to guess. But watching the boys answer questions, then watch the girls to see if they matched was always amusing. I feel like those questions were much more fun than the ones where the girls played first. I also can't say that any particular episode stands out to me... but, I also didn't realize that there were any popular kids on that show (which means there's no way I saw the episode with Benji Gregory... I loved ALF!).

My take: When I was ten or eleven and my brother was eight or so, I think we would've done really well. I think we could totally have won the main game, and sweep the prize round (we spent a lot of time talking about toys, so I'd like to think we'd make smart toy decisions for the other). And, as adults, if the questions were about childhood, I'd still play with my brother. If the questions were more about everyday adult life, I'd have to say that I'd prefer my sister as a partner. I talk to her more often at this point, so I feel we'd have a better chance. Though, I don't know how that prize round would work, haha! Maybe instead of televisions and bicycles there would be concert tickets and spa certificates??

Did you ever watch I'm Telling? Would you want to partner with your sibling if the show was still on the air and you were competing? Would you prefer the questions be about childhood or current day events?